The Prince of Wales has condemned climate change sceptics for their "corrosive" impact on public opinion and accused them of playing a "reckless game of roulette" with the planet.

In a speech at a European parliament climate conference in Brussels, he also warned environmentalists they needed to do much more to convince people to adopt a greener lifestyle.

He challenged the green lobby to start selling the benefits of sustainable living instead of focusing on what people should give up.

Questioning why the public had not eagerly embraced sustainable living, the prince said: "My conclusion is that, for too long, environmentalists have tended to concentrate on what people need to stop doing. If we are constantly told that living environmentally-friendly lives means giving up all that makes life worthwhile, then it is no surprise that people refuse to change."

He told the Low Carbon Prosperity Summit that efforts to sell greener living had been undermined by climate change sceptics.

"I have to say, this process has not exactly been helped by the corrosive effect on public opinion of those climate change sceptics who deny the vast body of scientific evidence that shows beyond any reasonable doubt that global warming has been exacerbated by human industrialised activity."

The implication, he said, was that those who accept the evidence of hundreds of scientists around the world are "secretly conspiring to undermine and deliberately destroy the entire market-based capitalist system which now dominates the world".

The prince questioned how sceptics would explain their position to future generations who had to deal with the adverse effects of failing to tackle climate change.

"I would ask how these people are going to face their grandchildren and admit to them that they failed their future," he said.

"I wonder, will such people be held accountable at the end of the day for the absolute refusal to countenance a precautionary approach? For this plays a most reckless game of roulette with the future inheritance of those who come after us."

The prince also warned MEPs and business leaders that efforts to tackle climate change would fail if economic growth continued to come at the expense of the environment. He challenged them to break the link between growth and the production of high-carbon goods, saying a "business as usual" approach to increasing national wealth was at odds with tackling climate change.

"I cannot see how we can possibly maintain the growth of GDP in the long term if we continue to consume our planet as voraciously as we are doing," he said.

The prince also warned that unless deforestation was tackled all other efforts to reduce global warming would be in vain.

"Stopping deforestation is not a lifestyle choice, it is an absolutely critical part of any low-carbon growth plan," he said.

"If we fail to address this problem, despite everything else we might do, there is no answer to climate change."